Hristo Zahariev

The second best scorer in the championship, Zahariev was left too open on the Bulgarian team when it came to being picked up on the perimeter. He didn’t seem to care too much and was pretty effective taking advantage.

Although an undersized shooting guard (he’s 6-4 at best), and not a great athlete, Zahariev is a very smooth shooter, gifted with a silky stroke. He can release his jumper off the dribble, with fade-away moves, coming off a cut, in catch-and-shoot fashion-- he’s always extremely fluid in the release. A solid ball-handler, he’s not particularly prolific attacking the rim, although he can go both ways and finish with a variety of lay-ups and even floaters; still he prefers to settle for mid-range shots once he manages to unbalance his opponent. However, he’s not a dominant ball-handler; he also works off the ball, cutting and searching for open looks.

Zahariev doesn’t seem to enjoy superb potential given his physical profile. Although he’s physically underdeveloped and might grow a little, the final result is not expected to look very NBA friendly. However, given his scoring prowess, he might emerge into a very interesting player for the European scene down the road. Born in 1990, next year he should challenge for the best scorer title in the next edition of this U-18 championship. Euroleague Champions Panathinaikos must have been paying attention, as they already purchased his rights just last week.